The anti-marriage lobbyist abides

As people hoping to legalize same-sex marriage lobbied elected officials at the Capitol today, the Rev. Duane Motley stood alone, unlabeled, outside the Senate Republican conference room saying hello to exiting legislators. He is the founder and senior lobbyist of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, which opposes same-sex marriage and other gay rights legislation.

Motley took a moment to explain why.

“Scripturally, it’s wrong,” he said, citing the Book of Genesis’ explanation that God created man and woman for procreation. Homosexuality, he said is a “behavior” and a “sinful habit.”

“It’s the behavior. It’s like alcoholism. It’s like drugs. It is like a sinful habit…you shouldn’t be giving it special rights,” he said. He noted the state’s anti-smoking campaigns, and said on a similar basis, government should be discouraging homosexual sex because of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS.

He declined to offer scientific evidence for any of his statements. He said of his “habit” assertion that “just observation alone will show you that.” He said he has participated in counseling gays and lesbians out of “the movement,” and scoffed at comparisons and arguments made by same-sex marriage advocates that the issue is akin to Civil Rights legislation.

“If you talk to an alcoholic, he’ll say the same thing. ‘I was born this way,’ ” he said.

Politically, Motley said he believes a proposal — there is not yet a bill — to legalize same-sex marriage is “a toss-up right now” in both legislative houses. A bill has passed the Assembly three times, but Democratic losses in last year’s elections have made the picture less certain. (Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell, the bill’s proponent, said at a rally today that “we did and we do have the votes to pass marriage equality in the Assembly.”) It failed in the Senate in 2009.

“You don’t see a lot of adults here,” he said of the ralliers (who in my observation contained many older advocates.) “You see a lot of high school kids. Why aren’t they in school?”